An industrial-tinged post-metal collective featuring members of Eyehategod, Minsk, Nachtmystium and Neurosis should be getting attention from all quarters, but Corrections House have gone about their business in a deliberately shady way.
The identities of the perpetrators behind ‘Last City Zero’ may not have been kept secret but neither has the release of this debut full-length come accompanied by the usual heavy promotional campaign a ‘supergroup’ of this type may choose to employ.
Listening to ‘Last City Zero’ it isn’t hard to figure out why. Scott Kelly, Bruce Lamont, Sanford Parker and Mike IX Williams are known for the nihilistic traits of their music, but this record gives Yevgeny Bazarov a run for his money.
The band’s mysterious “Minister of Propaganda”, Seward Fairbury, clearly has plenty he wants to get off his chest, with the monolithic album opener Serve Or Survive doing a brilliant job of mixing dystopian imagery with post-Godflesh brutality.
Thunderous, doomy riffs, subtly effective synths and scorching vocals from Kelly and Williams are the order of the day, but it’s the demonic sax of Lamont at the back of the mix that really elevates this beyond some of its competitors.
Even if the influences are often obvious, Corrections House do more than enough to ensure that they have their own sound. Kelly’s monstrous guitar work in particular is a good deal warmer than that most metal acts to cross over into the realms of the industrial, and IX’s vocals are unmistakable.
There’s also plenty of variation in pace. There’s the breakneck punk stylings of Bullets And Graves, the ballad-esque Run Through The Night and the savagely honest spoken word condemnation of the title track. Despite this variety, there is still a cohesive atmosphere to link the tracks together.
The inclusion of acoustic guitars, on the aforementioned Run Through The Night, could have been a big mistake, but they work so well that they’re barely noticeable. It appears that the musicians behind this project are all too aware of the traps they could have fallen into, but are skilled enough to have avoided them with ease.
It’s difficult to know how much of an ongoing concern Corrections House will be for its members, but that doesn’t change how good ‘Last City Zero’ is. It’s ferocious, powerful, heavy music at its most searingly vindictive. But then, given the figures involved, what else did you expect?
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